Cloverfield (film)
This article is about the film. You may be looking for the monster. Cloverfield is a 2008 film produced by J.J. Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. Many fans of Abrams' other creations were very intrigued by the first teaser trailer that appeared before Micheal Bay's film Transformers and speculated as to the film's plot. Many fans debated over the film's title—originally, "Cloverfield" was just a codename for the film—relating it to other subjects such as Astro Boy, Godzilla, and even Abrams' television show, Lost. The title of the movie was seemingly unrelated to the movie's plot. Though many theories surfaced, the reason for the name was the ending. Clover is the first thing to grow after a nuclear bomb. After the Hammerdown Protocol, Manhatten was turned into a "Cloverfield". "Cloverfield" soon became the name of all the events caused by the monster that happened on March 23 from the hours of 12:45 am (Clover's arrival) to 6:43 am (beginning of the Hammerdown Protocol). Plot The movie starts with no opening credits, but does show background images of "Property of U.S. Government Do Not Copy", overplayed with "Property of U.S. Department of Defense". The text also says that that the movie is a video off a Digital SD Card, concerning multiple sightings of case designate "Cloverfield", retrieved from US-447, the area formerly known as "Central Park". The film starts out on April 27th, at 6:42 a.m in Beth's apartment. Rob Hawkins is narrating. They plan a date to Coney Island after apparently spending the night together. The film flashes to May 22nd where Rob has accepted a job in Japan working as vice president of Slusho!, and all of his friends are planning a surprise party for him. Rob's best friend, Hud, is going around the room recording 'video confessions' for Rob. After attempting to flirt with his crush, Marlena, Hud, Rob, Jason (Rob's brother), and Lily (Jason's girlfriend) all hear what is either a huge roar, as reported by the local news station, or a huge explosion. However, electrical power interruptions and failures are also noticed. They decide to go on the roof to see what happened, when another explosion occurs and debris crashes into the neighborhood. They run into the street and find the Statue of Liberty's head flying down the street. It hits the ground and rolls for about fifty feet and people start screaming. They all hear another huge roar and then they see part of the monster disappear behind a building. A building resembling the Empire State Building collapses and the dust and debris begin rushing toward where everyone is gathered. Rob, Jason, Hud, and Lily find shelter in a neighboring conviniance store. When the front passes, they find Marlena wandering the street, apparently having been caught in the dust cloud. The group joins a nearby discussion of what caused the explosion, and Hud attempts to show them video footage, but the tape rewinds back to Rob's date with Beth. The city slickers try to cross the Brooklyn bridge to get out of Manhattan. In the process of crossing the bridge, the tail of the monster smashes down on it, causing the bridge to collapse, killing Jason and any others who were on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. The group proceeds to find Beth by traversing the inner part of the city. The monster is shown briefly being shot at by the Army before they march down to the subway to keep safe. After contemplating their options, Rob receives a call from his mother and he informs her of Jason's death. They go through the subway tunnels and pace through it for a while, but a gurgling noise from behind them, these turn out to be the "mini-monsters" which resemble spiders. One of the parasites drags Hud away until Marlena saves him, Marlena is bitten by one of them and suffers fatigue and some nasty scars across her right shoulder and back. They make their way into a mall on 59th Street, are found by the military and are taken away to a nearby Field base. A heated argument with the apparent commander of the base ensues, but Marlena, interrupts and asks for Hud, then she is bleeding from the eyes and one of the nurses proclaims "BITE! WE'VE GOT A BITE!". She is taken behind a curtain where she explodes, most likely from the bite. They are ushered into a hallway by the squad leader, and he tells them that he won't stop them from going to find Beth, but that the government is considering the HAMMERDOWN protocol, meaning they are going to bomb Manhattan with the Mother of All Bombs and level the city as a last resort. He informs them that the last helicopter is leaving the island at 0600, 6:00 AM. They begin to go to Beth's apartment, but when they arrive they find her building has toppled and is leaning at a 30o angle on the adjacent building. They trek up the joining building, then cross the roof to Beth's apartment. She has been impaled by a piece of rebar, but they are able to pull it out. They trek back across the roof, but encounter another parasite. Rob grabs an axe and jams it into the creature and they make their way down. When they are on their way back to the helipad, the monster roars at them while being fired with missiles. They arrive at the helipad, and Lily is taken into the first helicopter, but Rob, Hud and Beth must wait for another. When it arrives, it manages to pick them up and avoid being crushed by a truck the monster throws. As they fly away, B2 Stealth bombers drop their payload on the beast and it falls, obscured by a cloud of dust. Just as they think it down for the count, it rises from the smoke and smashes into the chopper, knocking them into a wild tailspin as they get closer to the ground. The chopper crashes, but Rob, Hud and Beth survive. While they are unconscient, a radio operator announces that the bombs did not work, and the target is still alive. HAMMERDOWN protocol is to be enacted in 15 minutes. As they awake, the monster is close, so they attempt to get to Central Park, But the monster hovers over Hud, stares at him briefly, and then eats his lower half of his body dropping the upper half to the ground. Rob and Beth are seen mourning his demise shortly afterwards as Rob picks up the Cam-Corder and he and Beth run under Grayshot Arch. The film ends as Rob and Beth confess their love, and the HAMMERDOWN sequence is carried out. At the end credits, a man talking backwards can be heard. When the segment is reverted, "It's Still Alive" (voiced by director Matt Reeves) can be heard. It is likely a set-up for the next film. DVD Release The DVD was released on April 22, 2008 in two versions: the standard single-disc edition and an exclusive "steel-book" special edition that was sold at Suncoast and FYE retailers in the US and Future Shop in Canada. Other store exclusives: an exclusive bonus disc titled "T.J. Miller's Video Diary" with the DVD at all Best Buy retailers, an exclusive mix CD titled "Rob's Goin' to Japan Party Mix" with the DVD at all Target and Wal-Mart retailers and an exclusive ringtone with the DVD at all Kmart and Sears retailers. The Region 2 DVD was released on June 9, 2008 in both single and double-disc editions. The limited steelbook edition will only be available from HMV, while Play.com offers exclusive cover artwork. The HMV-exclusive steelbook contains two discs. The DVD includes two alternate endings, which vary only slightly. The first alternate ending shows Rob and Beth exiting the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station instead of on the Ferris wheel and features different sirens in the background as Rob talks to the camera. In the second alternate ending, just after the final explosion, Beth can be heard screaming "Rob!", followed by a very brief clip of an unknown person looking at the camera and brushing rubble off the lens. Easter Eggs * Go to the Setup section of the DVD, select Español under Subtitle Options and click right to reveal a red helicopter icon where the Statue of Liberty's head should be. The video consists of several different takes of the cast and crew repeating the line "Rack 'em and pack 'em. We're phantoms in 15." * Go to the Scene Selection and click on 9-12. Go to Scene 10, then click up to view the full subway Parasite attack with green "X" CGI place markers instead of the Parasites. * Go to the Scene Selection area of the DVD, click on scenes 13-16 and wait for one minute, sixteen seconds. This results in a '17' appearing to the right of 13-16. Selecting the extra 'scene' takes you to Supplemental Features. Selecting the third link on the left gives the Channel 26 News Broadcast on the sinking of the Chuai Station oil platform. The fifth link on the left gives the main menu of the Slusho! website and the Slusho! TV advertisement. The third link on the right shows a list of the 11 video blogs from the Jamie Loves Teddy website, four of which (#2, 5, 9, 11) are viewable. External Links *Wikipedia Cloverfield Page *Watch Cloverfield for free on SuperNovaTube. *Cloverfield Clues blog *1-18-08.com (requires Adobe Flash Player) *Cloverfield on CNBC *Cloverfield article on iMDb Category:Content